Shock waves in Scangroup as Ogilvy pillars exit to establish Oxygène Marketing Communications
Listed marketing firm WPP Scangroup is swimming in stormy waters following the silent departure of some of its senior and mission critical employees at Ogilvy Kenya.
Mr Nick Wachira, the managing director of Ogilvy Public Relations, is leaving the company and is currently in transition, according to reliable sources. Wachira has been in talks with Scangroup CEO Bharat Thakrar over the last six months with the company unsuccessfully bidding to retain him.
Mr Wachira and a team of former Ogilvy colleagues have joined forces with Mr Linus Gitahi, the former CEO of Nation Media Group, to form Oxygène Marketing Communications.
The partners include Alfred Ng’ang’a, James Makau and Mutahi Mureithi. Mr Ng’ang’a – who was managing partner for public affairs and government relations driving accounts such as Kenya Revenue Authority, Equity Bank, Nakumatt, Britam Savannah Cement, and Simba Corp – left the company last week.
Mr Makau, who left earlier, was the group account director and head of corporate practice managing accounts such as Safaricom, KCB, Coca-Cola Central and East Africa, CBA, and Deloitte. Mr Mureithi, a former business journalist, worked at PTA Bank as Communications Director.
Business Today’s efforts to get the partners’ comments this evening proved futile with both Wachira and Ng’ang’a promising to call back.
Oxygène, according to people familiar with the shop, is styled as an independent, boutique communications agency that differentiates itself with a strong focus on strategy and planning, and having a strong team of partners who can offer senior level counsel to C-Suite on a broad range of complex issues that cannot be handled easily with just a PR and advertising identity.
Scramble at Ogilvy
There has been talk over the last one year that Mr Wachira would return to a senior newsroom role at NMG, but the move to launch an agency in competition with global advertising holding companies such as WPP comes as a major twist to the narrative and unprecedented in Kenya for a man who has spent a big portion of his career as a journalist covering business and financial news.
Mr Wachira has a good history with start-ups where he has built teams to execute successful projects, including Financial Standard, Smart Company, Money Magazine, Business Daily and the East African as well as Rwanda Today. He was hired by Scangroup four years ago to spearhead the turnaround of Ogilvy PR after Koome Mwambia left to start the Red House Group. This is the second time a senior manager is leaving Ogilvy with a number of staff to set up a rival business.
Already, the fledgling agency is in cross hairs with Scangroup and has sent a panic alert at Ogilvy where there is a major scramble to reassure clients. The exits at Ogilvy come against a background of falling revenues and profitability at the NSE listed communications giant. The company’s after tax profits fell 23.4 per cent to Ksh478.7 million in 2015.
Oxygène already has big accounts in its stable including Chase Bank, Kenya Bankers Association, I&M Bank and KCB. Ogilvy is likely to lose more clients to the new outfit as Mr Wachira and his partners had personalised relations with most of them. Here low-hanging fruits include Nakumatt.
It will be an interesting assignment for Linus Gitahi, the chairman of Oxygène, who will likely advise clients on strategy and media. Mr Wachira is clearly the fulcrum of the team, having worked with each of the partners at one point in time. He worked under Linus Gitahi at Nation Media Group as Managing Editor of Business Daily; he worked with Makau at Business Daily where he was a reporter; he succeeded Mutahi Mureithi at the Standard as Business Editor and has been Ng’ang’a’s colleague at Ogilvy.
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